Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Pilot Hi-tec-c review

In my previous post, I mentioned my new pens and pencils that I got. One of them is the Pilot Hi-tec C (or G-tec C, as they are called in Belgium) If you don't know anything about these pens, you should also check out Brad's blog: the Pen Addict, he really loves them!

But if you frequently read stationery blogs, you probably already read millions of reviews about this pen. But that won't hold me back to add another one to that list! I have to say this though: I personally like them, but they aren't everyone's favorite! They really are something totally different from what you typically use.

Personally I think Pilot deserves a trophy for making a gel pen that writes this fine and smooth, but that's just my opinion. I say 'gel' pen but I don't exactly know what kind of ink it is, anyway it resembles gel ink!

But as I said before, You might not like it at all. The first thing that might annoy you is the appearance. It isn't a fancy pen, being made almost entirely out of plastic, with the exception of the metal front piece (or whatever it is called!)

The fact that this pen is so well known and loved around the world. Does give you some options to 'upgrade' it, as there are multiple barrels for the refill available trough Kickstarter projects. These range from all metal, to bamboo finishes, and they will definitely make this pen stand out like it deserves to!

Some examples of these barrels are:
The pen type A from CW&T (It's quite expensive, but it looks very,very sleek! It's not really portable though, it's more like a desk pen!)
The render-K from karaskustoms (which looks more like a normal pen, and they have some other cool models as well)
The eco-essential pen from nownthen (which is made out of bamboo, it's also available with a capacitive stylus). I personally don't have one of these yet. But I would really like one, so I might buy one when my wallet get's too heavy :-)

The way this pen writes certainly is unique. It isn't really smooth, but any pen that writes this fine will be scratchy, probably even more than this one. But if you really only like buttery-smooth writers, this pen might be too scratchy for you. The fine needle tip also makes it a good technical drawing pen, though the ink is a little too thick to work easily for drafting. It also stops working when you try to ink a drawing that you made in pencil, somehow graphite and this pen don't combine very well!

Nevertheless, it's great for small handwriting and sketching. And you should give it a try as they aren't very expensive, I have no idea about the exact price though!

PS: I'm sorry for the terrible written review, I was a little too tired at that moment!

Yes i've actually seen those before, but unfortunately only in online shops. I live in Belgium you know, and it seems like they don't really care about following stationery trends! I was very surprised that I even found the regular ones here. Though this does remind me that I also have another pen with a hi-tec-c ink cartridge. I'll search it, and add it to the review tomorrow! Thanks for the tip!